


022 "Rae's date"

by wheel_pen



Series: Iron Man AU [22]
Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Fish out of Water, My Pepper is different, Pre-Iron Man, alternative universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-10
Updated: 2013-04-10
Packaged: 2017-12-08 01:22:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/755342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wheel_pen/pseuds/wheel_pen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper-less again one Christmas, Tony spots Rae having dinner with a man who is not Rhodey—and who upsets her with his unwelcome advances. Tony swoops in to rescue her, but his methods, though well-intentioned, don't exactly impress her. "Most of the things you think of me are true. But not that one."</p>
            </blockquote>





	022 "Rae's date"

**Author's Note:**

> 1) My Pepper is very different from canon Pepper. Her personality/origin is very different; to separate her from canon Pepper I've given her a new last name and a different hair color.
> 
> 2) The bad words are censored. That's just how I do things.
> 
> 3) Stories are numbered in the order I wrote them, which isn't necessarily the order in which they occur. At some point I'll post a timeline.
> 
> I wrote this series after the first Iron Man movie came out. It's very AU but I hope you'll enjoy it anyway. I own nothing and appreciate the chance to play with these characters.

            So I may have mentioned before how much I disliked the time of year when Pepper went on vacation. Mostly this was because Pepper was completely inaccessible to me at this time. There were other, lesser reasons, too, such as having to get used to a new assistant and being really bored. But another reason I disliked Pepper leaving was because of all the really weird s‑‑t that happened to me while she was gone. I never realized how much order Pepper brought to my life until she had left and the forces of chaos could (temporarily) reign again.

            So one evening shortly before Christmas I was out at a very nice restaurant with a very charming companion, enjoying a leisurely meal before heading back to my place for dessert, if you know what I mean. In case you were wondering who would take out the trash with Pepper gone, I should add that this particular charming companion was a long-time acquaintance of mine with a _professional_ attitude who knew how to let herself out in the morning. See, I was thinking ahead.

            So we were in a quiet corner of the restaurant, very much keeping to ourselves, when all of a sudden I heard a familiar voice. No, not Pepper's. Rae's. My head snapped up and I started scanning the room for her. Rhodey had been away on a work trip, but if he'd come back into town early and decided to celebrate with a romantic night out with the missus, I wanted to be a good friend and take my prostitute home. No use intruding, you know? Okay, actually, I'd intruded on them lots of times, often on purpose, but things had been a bit rocky between me and Rae lately and I didn't want to push it.

            Well, I finally spotted Rae, but the man she was with _wasn't_ Rhodey. I've said before that when Rhodey wasn't there Rae and I tried to avoid contact, so I didn't jump up immediately to say hi. Instead I just kept an eye on them while Melanie drank some more wine and humored me.

            I started by assuming the best, that the guy was a relative. Not her brother (Jae, if you were curious), because I'd met her brother before. But he might have been a cousin or something. Nothing wrong with that.

            But then I noticed things starting to get a little weird. _He_ was definitely checking her out at various points—so probably not a relative, then. In fact _he_ was giving off a very date-like vibe. But before you think I was jumping to illicit conclusions because Rae and I didn't always get along, let me assure you that _she_ was not on a date, in her mind I mean. And she was _absolutely_ not on an adulterous date. Her body language was very casual, friendly, relaxed. She knew the guy, she felt decently comfortable with him. She didn't have a goal she was headed for or an agenda to push.

            "But he is _totally_ into her," Melanie agreed, assessing them with an expert eye. "They're on different wavelengths completely. Someone's gonna be disappointed this evening."

            "It better be him," I muttered darkly. Like I said, I didn't think Rae was acting like someone out with her lover while her husband was away. Yeah, the possibility entered my mind at first, but I quickly dismissed it based on the evidence at hand, not to mention my assessment of Rae's character. She might have irritated the h—l out of me by being a holier-than-thou busybody, but the Apocalypse would come before she'd cheat on Rhodey.

            Which still left the question of what was going on here.

            "Two triple chocolate fudge cakes, with ice cream," I told the waiter, who had come to subtly harass us about leaving again.

            "Tony!" Melanie complained. "I'm trying to watch my diet better this season."

            "Sorry," I replied, shaking my head. "I'm used to eating with Pepper. We'll take it home and violate some health codes with it."

            "Sounds fun," she agreed, leaning across the table towards me. "Do you think this will happen soon? Or are we going to spy on your friends for another hour?"

            "Something's happening," I shushed her, watching the other table intently.

            The bill had just come. The guy said something with a smile, but Rae suddenly looked tense. She reached for the check and he grinned the grin of a sleazy lothario and put his hand over hers. She snatched hers away and started to stand.

            "Take a cab to the house," I told Melanie, dropping a pile of cash on the table for the bill. At that moment I wasn't too interested in whether she decided to do as I said or not; I was already halfway across the restaurant on an errand of friendship.

            "Rae! Funny meeting _you_ here, huh?" I announced, popping up at their table.

            Rae's expression clearly said her evening had just gone from bad to worse, but I didn't take offense. "Tony! What are you doing here?"

            "Having dinner. Who's this?"

            Rae looked as if she would rather have a root canal than continue speaking to me. Didn't have a dentist handy, though. "This is my… co-worker, Brian Rogers. Look, Tony, we—I—was just about to go—"

            "Really? From over there it looked like you were just about to belt this guy," I observed.

            "Tony—" she sighed painfully.

            Brian Rogers stood and tried to tower over me. Okay, he had a few inches on me, but I had _way_ more experience at intimidating people, and _I_ worked on adults, not elementary school kids.

            "So you're Tony Stark, huh?" he said in a slightly scoffing tone. "I've heard a lot about you."

            Hmm, it hadn't occurred to me that my antics might be fodder for the teachers' lounge at Bayside Elementary. Rae looked quite embarrassed when he said that, actually. Well, it didn't really bother me.

            "If you've heard so much about me," I told the jerk coolly, "then you know I'll break your nose if you don't sit down and shut up."

            We stared down for a minute. And then the guy sat.

            The maitre d' hurried over to us, enhancing Rae's mortification even more. "Is there a problem here, Mr. Stark?"

            "No, Angelo, no problem at all," I assured him. "In fact, I want to take care of the bill for this table."

            There were objections from both Rae and the d—k, but I knew how to flash the cash effectively and made sure Angelo knew exactly who to listen to. "That should cover it," I said, handing him some bills. "Can I give you a lift home, Rae?" It was not really a question.

            We walked outside and waited on the sidewalk while the valet brought my car around. We stood in silence, awkward on her part, but fortunately the valet service at this place was very good and the wait was short. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Melanie slip out of the restaurant and head down the block away from us, to hail a cab without obviously having come from this location. That was what I liked about Melanie—she was a true professional, discretion itself, who wouldn't be at all offended that I didn't even look in her direction. I really hoped she decided to go back to my place.

            When the car came I opened the door for Rae and closed it behind her as well, making sure she couldn't give me the slip. I really wanted to know what that whole scene was about back there.

            I pulled out into the street and began driving towards the Rhodes residence at my usual blistering pace. I didn't ask any questions—I knew she couldn't keep quiet for long. She'd feel a desperate need to explain herself to me.

            And sure enough—"Look, Tony, that wasn't what it looked like back there."

            "I know."

            "I mean, we were just—oh. You do?" She seemed surprised that I wasn't getting ready to stone her.

            "Well, if you mean it wasn't a _date_ , I know _that_ ," I clarified, not wanting to confuse the situation. "Although I didn't really think it looked like one, on your part, anyway."

            "Oh. Well, it wasn't."

            I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and opened it, eyes flicking from the road to the display. My multi-tasking alarmed Rae. "What are you doing?"

            "I'm going to call Rhodey," I replied. "Just to let him know I'm giving you a ride."

            "No, Tony, please," she insisted, "do _not_ try to use the phone while driving, okay? And could you please slow down?"

            I conceded the point about the phone—although I _could_ have done it just fine—but the driving thing was trickier. "Well, you know, this is the speed I always drive at," I reminded her unnecessarily, "and I think it might be dangerous for me to learn a new speed on the fly—don't you think?" I was being serious. I didn't even know what the speed limits _were_ around here. The only times I read the signs were for things like construction and school zones (see, I wasn't _entirely_ evil).

            "Fine," she sighed, clearly not in the mood to argue (which seemed rare).

            "And anyway," I went on, a bit uncomfortably, "the less time we spend alone in the car, the better."

            Rae rolled her eyes (I assumed from her tone, as I wasn't looking at her). "Tony, if Jim thought you had _that_ little self-control, he wouldn't be friends with you," she pointed out with some disgust.

            "Well thanks for the compliment, I _think_ ," I replied with just a bit of sarcasm, "but it's not about my self-control. It's about my reputation."

            "Yes, I suppose I am a little _older_ than the usual woman who gets into your car," she scoffed. "Not to mention wearing more clothing. We wouldn't want someone to think your tastes were changing."

            I shot her a sideways glance and saw she was staring moodily out the window. There was a lot of hostility rolling off her—residual, I presumed. "What I _meant_ ," I explained calmly when she had finished ranting, "was that _given_ my reputation, any woman seen getting into my car is assumed to have one purpose only." Seriously, I could've given Mother Teresa a lift home with her groceries and the press would've started cracking _Kama Sutra_ jokes. "Especially after that little incident at the restaurant, which may well be on the wires already." She looked over at me when I said that, suddenly nervous. I was probably exaggerating a little bit—I hoped—since the drama wasn't played out in front of a horde of paparazzi, but I could definitely picture someone in the restaurant turning the "news" over to a gossip columnist for a two-line mention. Still, I liked to keep my friends' names _out_ of the papers as much as possible. "So you should definitely call Rhodey as soon as you get home, before it becomes a news alert in his inbox."

            "Well you could have been a little more discreet," she snapped.

            J---s. Project much, lady? Well, we don't do these little kindnesses for gratitude, after all. "I _was_ being discreet," I shot back. "What I _really_ wanted to do was punch that sleazy b‑‑‑‑‑d in the face, then shove one of those fancy candlesticks up his—"

            "Tony!" Rae interrupted, just when I was really getting into it. What could I say, I didn't like seeing my friends upset, even if they weren't friends I usually got along with. She sighed deeply and some of the anger seemed to dissipate. She even gave a wry half-smile. "Well, I probably wouldn't have tried to stop you."

            At last, Rae and I had found some common ground. "So what was it all about, anyway?"

            "G-d, I just feel so _stupid_ ," she confessed. Hey, been there, too. "This is only Brian's second year at Bayside, but we got along well, I thought we were friends. So he told me he'd won this gift certificate to that restaurant, and he asked me to go with him because he 'knew I would appreciate the cuisine.' " I was shaking my head before she even finished, already seeing where this was going. "Well, we got to the end of the meal, and the guy just—ugh!" She made a gesture of disgust. "It wasn't so much what he said exactly, just—he _knows_ I'm married, why would he even _consider_ that I would be interested in his 'offer'?"

            "Men are pigs, Rae," I reminded her succinctly. "You married the only decent male left in the human race. And _this_ guy is an a-----e of the first rate."

            "Thanks, that means a lot, coming from you."

            Wow. I was really hurt by that. I think that came through my body language loud and clear. "I would _never_ try to break up a marriage, Rae," I informed her in a low voice, as apparently she was unaware of this fact.

            "I know, I'm sorry, Tony," she replied quickly, seemingly contrite. "I know you wouldn't." There was an awkward pause and she cleared her throat. "So, uh, Pepper's on vacation, isn't she?" Thanks for reminding me. "Were you, um, at the restaurant alone, or…?"

            "No, I was having dinner with a call girl," I told her, still feeling a bit stung. "Who is hopefully waiting for me at home right now, covering herself in chocolate cake." Rae sighed again. "Most of the things you think of me are true, Rae. But not that one."

            Finally we reached the outskirts of the tidy suburb where Rhodey and Rae lived. "Could you please slow down a little here, there are often children out," she requested, and I agreed.

            "So are you gonna have trouble with this guy at work?" I asked her.

            Clearly that was something she didn't want to think about. "I don't think so," she told me.

            "Because if you do, I can make a phone call and get rid of him."

            She stared at me. "Please tell me you aren't talking about a _hit_ , Tony."

            "No," I scoffed (although I could probably do that, too). "I _meant_ , I could have him transferred, or even fired."

            Rae shook her head at my nonsense (or so it seemed). "Tony, the public school system is not one of your subsidiaries. Even _you_ can't just make a phone call and get someone fired."

            Well, I hated to correct her, but—"Um, well, actually I _can_ , and I _have_." She gave me a questioning look. I felt I was about to be busted—to bust myself, really. "You remember when Mikey was in first grade, the teacher he had? The old b---h who yelled at him about his spelling and told you he'd end up a janitor?"

            Rae's lips tightened into a thin line. She remembered, alright. "Mrs. Kayson. She retired halfway through the year."

            "More like, she got _tossed_ out in the pasture," I replied with a trace of smugness. "I called the district superintendent and gave him twenty grand—"

            "Oh my G-d! You _bribed_ a school official?!" she exclaimed in horror. I think she was more upset about that idea than the call girl.

            "No! The money was for a perfectly legitimate, above-board fund to help hire a new teacher mid-year," I explained. " _And_ that one junior high got a brand-new gym."

            Rae frowned, thinking back. "Didn't they name that gym after some local athlete?"

            "Yeah, well, weapons manufacturing and school sponsorship don't really go together," I pointed out. "At least not in _this_ country. But that's not important—what's _important_ is that I'm sure the superintendent has other buildings he'd like to improve, so if this Brian guy starts hassling you—"

            "I just cannot believe you, Tony," Rae cut in, shaking her head. But not in a good, 'aren't you a generous friend, if a bit disreputable' way. More in a _bad_ way, like—"You think you can just get whatever you want in life by throwing your money around, don't you?"

            "Well, no," I tried to say, "there's also political power, media savvy, and just plain attitude—"

            She interrupted me again. "Well you can't control everything in life, Tony. You can't just move people in or out of your way like—pieces on a chessboard."

            Well, actually, so far that had worked pretty well for me. "The new teacher Mikey got—you really liked her, didn't you?" She was forced to indicate yes. "In fact, you liked her so much, you used your school connections to make sure Ellie had her, too."

            "That's different," she insisted. "I'm a parent—"

            "Well, I'm an uncle," I cut in. "I really do _care_ about the kids, you know?" We turned onto her street, which I had driven over a thousand times coming to see them. "I'm not just the guy who brings them inappropriate gifts and feeds them ice cream for dinner," I added in a mutter.

            "I know," she agreed, quiet again. But I had to wonder if she really did. Look, I'd be the first to admit that I was selfish, self-centered, inconsiderate of others; but there _were_ people in this world I truly cared about. I think I've covered this before so I won't belabor the point. I don't know—maybe Rae couldn't be blamed for thinking like she did. I thought I always made it obvious when I really cared about someone, but maybe it was hard to see through all the b‑‑‑‑‑‑t that was swirling around. You'd think she would at least give me the benefit of the doubt since Rhodey liked me, though.

            We pulled into her driveway behind the babysitter's car. (That would be Megan, who was a sophomore in education at the local community college, got straight A's, and had no criminal record. I had her checked out.) The lights were on so the kids were still up, probably; they'd want to see me if they knew I was here. But, nice girl that Megan was, she didn't need the opportunity to question why _I_ had brought Mrs. Rhodes home.

            I started to get out just to open Rae's door for her, but she didn't wait (most women didn't these days—except Pepper). So I ended up standing by the car, the door safely between us, as she walked around towards the sidewalk that led to the house. "Thank you, Tony," she said, and it seemed sincere.

            I nodded. "Call Rhodey, alright?"

            "I will."

            I got back in the car and pulled out onto the street, then waited until she'd gotten inside before driving off. This was surely all one good deed I'd done this evening, which was about two more than usual for me. My reward? A prostitute covered in chocolate cake. Such was the life of Tony Stark.

* * *


End file.
